BPIFC -Volume 1 – Chapter 26 Lightning

Sun Desheng chuckled and stepped behind Shen La. Looking at the man in black, he said:

“Listen to you. Do I really seem that capable? To be honest, if you’d offered me eighty or a hundred taels of gold earlier, I might’ve handed Yang Xiao over to you. What a pity—I never got the chance.”

The man in black stood where he was, staring coldly at Sun Desheng.

After the fat man finished speaking, he let out a sneer.

“You really think you’ve already won? Not necessarily.”

As those words left his mouth, the man’s body transformed into a cloud of human-shaped smoke.

Thunder rumbled inside the smoke, while arcs of electricity flickered continuously within it.

In an instant, dark storm clouds gathered above Ghost Market Street.

Thunder began roaring through the clouds overhead, crackling without end.

Just as it seemed the man in black was about to attack, the smoky figure suddenly dispersed.

A pale-faced young man fell out of the smoke and crashed onto the ground.

The moment he landed, he spat out a mouthful of blood.

Staring fixedly at Sun Desheng, he said in a deathly pale voice:

“How did you do it…? The Book of Life and Death… You tampered with it…”

Before he could finish, another mouthful of blood sprayed from his lips.

Seeing the man in black mysteriously injured, the guards immediately split into three groups.

One group blocked Che Qianzi.

Another stood between Sun Desheng, Shen La, and their master.

The remaining guards rushed forward to help the man in black to his feet.

Now that they could finally see his face clearly, Sun Desheng turned to Shen La and said:

“Spicy, let me introduce someone. This is Judge Peng Hezai of the Underworld. Judge Peng is the designated successor to the position of King Yama. The Underworld has a rule: once a King Yama ascends the throne, he must immediately designate an heir. In the past, when a King Yama died without naming a successor, it caused enormous chaos.”

When it came to the history of the Underworld, Shen La knew far more than Sun Desheng.

After all, he had infiltrated the Repository of Unopened Fates, replaced the old man, and tampered with the scroll beforehand.

The entire operation had been nearly flawless.

Still, he gave his friend some face.

Nodding, he said:

“Great Sage, if we get rid of Judge Peng now, it could trigger a conflict with the Underworld. The consequences would be too severe. Even you couldn’t bear that responsibility.”

“Now you understand how serious the consequences are.”

Supported by his guards, Peng Hezai struggled to catch his breath as he continued:

“If war breaks out between Heaven and Earth…The Underworld will shut down the reincarnation pathway. At that point, the living will only die and never be reborn. And when you die, your souls will become soldiers of the Underworld. You have no chance of winning.”

Sun Desheng laughed.

“There is another way to avoid a war. I’ll go talk to your King Yama. I’ll tell him that Judge Peng Hezai threatened Yang Xiao and tried to make him assassinate the King of the Underworld. Then you’d inherit the throne. Judge Peng, tell me honestly—wouldn’t people believe that story?”

The moment Sun said those words, the guards around Peng Hezai began exchanging uneasy glances.

The accusation was shocking.

Could it actually be true?

And if it was, would they become implicated as well?

Sweat appeared on Peng Hezai’s forehead.

Before his subordinates could react, he suddenly reached into empty air and grabbed the stone sword.

Then he swung it at the guards standing before him.

A flash of sword light swept across the street.

The guards directly in front of him were instantly cut in half.

After dealing with them, Peng Hezai swung the sword twice more.

The remaining guards were also slaughtered.

As he completed the third strike, he spat out another mouthful of blood.

The stone sword slipped from his grasp, and he collapsed to the ground.

“That counts as silencing witnesses, doesn’t it?”

Looking at the corpses scattered everywhere, Shen La continued:

“This judge is quite something. Yang Xiao personally prepared the poison, and he managed to hold out this long.”

As he spoke, Shen La drew a short sword that emitted an eerie glow from the Demon Monkey.

With the weapon in hand, he continued:

“Yang Xiao was right. We can’t let him leave alive. Great Sage, do you have anything else you want to ask him?”

Sun Desheng hesitated briefly.

But in the end, he had no intention of stopping Shen La.

If Peng Hezai died here, they could claim that the guards had rebelled and place all the blame on them.

That outcome was still preferable to triggering a war between the living world and the Underworld.

If Peng Hezai survived, his schemes would undoubtedly bring more bloodshed upon the Bureau in the future.

Turning toward Che Qianzi, Sun said:

“Brother, you just joined the Bureau and immediately witnessed something like this. Don’t overthink it. This isn’t the kind of case the Bureau handles every day. Most people couldn’t encounter an event like this even after several lifetimes. You saw one on your very first day.”

Earlier, when Shen La had been disguised as the old man and drawn Che Qianzi’s blood, he had secretly coated his fingernail with medicine.

When he cut Che Qianzi’s face, the medicine entered the wound and spread through his bloodstream, allowing him to recover so quickly.

Seeing Shen La preparing to finish off Peng Hezai, Che Qianzi suddenly asked:

“That scroll was fake, wasn’t it? Shen La, you’ve got the real one, right? Give it to me.”

Shen La replied: “After I finish taking care of this business.”

Che Qianzi had thought he would finally learn the truth about his origins and discover who his biological parents were.

Instead, the Book of Life and Death had burned before his eyes.

His hopes had burst like a soap bubble.

Yet now, unexpectedly, hope had returned.

Hearing Shen La insist on killing the judge first, Che Qianzi grew anxious.

Unable to hold back, he said:

“Give me the Book of Life and Death first. How do I know you won’t get yourself killed by this judge? What am I supposed to do then—wait for you to visit me in a dream?”

Those words instantly wiped away whatever favorable impression Shen La had developed of him during the day.

The white-haired man turned and looked at the young Taoist.

For a moment, he considered teaching the kid a lesson.

Just then, a deafening thunderclap exploded across the sky.

A massive bolt of lightning descended from above.

Without missing by even an inch, it struck Peng Hezai directly.

A blinding flash illuminated the entire area.

When the lightning vanished, only a charred human-shaped mark remained on the ground.

Judge Peng Hezai himself had completely disappeared.

Even Shen La had never encountered anything like this before.

Momentarily stunned, he instantly flashed to the scorch mark.

After examining it, he turned back toward the approaching Sun Desheng and said:

“Great Sage, the judge isn’t dead. Someone embedded an escape technique within the lightning. Peng escaped.”

Sun Desheng arrived behind him, breathing heavily.

After catching his breath, he stared at the burn mark and said:

“Now that’s a problem. Who knows what kind of nonsense he’ll tell King Yama after he gets back? Spicy, can you figure out who specializes in this kind of escape technique?”

“You think too highly of me.”

Shen La smiled bitterly.

“I can’t even perform escape techniques myself. The fact that I could identify it as one is already impressive. We’ll have to ask Director Wu when we get back. Maybe he’ll know who’s skilled at this—”

“Run!”

Before he could finish speaking, Shen La’s expression suddenly twisted.

In the same instant, he grabbed both Sun Desheng and Che Qianzi and hurled them away.

The moment he pushed them aside, another lightning bolt—thick as a tree trunk—crashed down from the heavens.

It struck Shen La squarely.

His clothes exploded into fragments.

The impact forced him back a step.

A moment later, thunder roared again overhead.

A third bolt of lightning descended.

With a furious roar, Shen La raised his fist and punched directly into the lightning.

At the instant his fist collided with it, blinding arcs of electricity illuminated the entire Ghost Market like broad daylight.

Then everything plunged back into darkness.

Che Qianzi had never imagined Shen La could be this powerful.

The man was literally punching lightning apart with his bare hands.

The words Che Qianzi had been about to say stuck in his throat.

After a moment’s hesitation, he swallowed them.

Who said he was just a reckless hothead?

When he saw someone this terrifying, even he knew better than to pick a fight.

Just then, Sun Desheng’s phone rang.

He answered it and said: “I know it’s you. The target already got away. You can come in now. Yang Xiao, isn’t there something important you forgot to mention?”